Kusum fanning Gopaler Maa

03-September-2012 (Monday)
Reminiscences of The Holy Mother!!!

HOLY MOTHER - 50
ASHUTOSH MITRA

After I returned from Jayarambati, Mother listened with avid interest to a detailed account of the worship.

A few days after this, a trip to Puri was planned for Mother. When the trip was confirmed, we spent two days shopping during the daytime and packing at night.

Mother was accompanied by her Khuro, Radhu, Chhoto-mami, Nati’s mother Chuni Babu’s wife,23 (23Chuni Babu, the Master’s devotee, was a neighbout of Balaram Bose.) Kusum,24 (24 Kusumkumari Devi. She had the opportunity to come in contact with Swamiji. A child-widow, she used to live in Varanasi and had accompanied Swami Achalananda (Kedar baba) to Jayrambati to meet Mother. Later she also attended on Mother. She was the disciple of Gopal’s Mother. The lady seated with a fan beside Gopal’s Mother’s head in the well-known photograph wherein Sister Nivedita is seated at the feet of Gopal’s Mother, is Kusumkumari Devi. See SNRV (Sister Nivedita of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda), Pravrajika Atmaprana, 1961, p. 203) Golap-ma, and Lakshmi-didi. The men in the party were Baburam Maharaj and myself (besides Khuro). Mother and the other ladies boarded a reserved second-class compartment and we men got into an interclass compartment. Baburam Maharaj’s younger brother Shantiram Babu and Ganendranath saw us off at Howrah Station. Early next morning we reached Puri. ‘Khetrabasi’s Math’25 (25A house belonging to Balaram Bose located on the main road leading to the temple.) was placed at our disposal. Baburam Maharaj put up at ‘Shashi Niketan’, another house of Balaram Bose, facing the sea.

(REMINISCENCES OF Sri Sarada Devi by Monastics, Devotees, and others - Compiled and Edited in Bengali by SWAMI PURNATMANANDA - Translated by MALOTI SEN GUPTA: P 180-181)

Location: Bangalore, India